Crossing Jordan (NBC 2001, Jill Hennessy, Miguel Ferrer

Meet Jordan Cavanaugh (Jill Hennessy), a drop-dead brilliant medical examiner, who never takes murder lying down. Leaving a string of disappointing jobs and disappointed men on the streets of LA, the prodigal daughter goes coastal, returning to her hometown of Boston and her former job at the State Coroner’s office.

A woman possessed — with brains, beauty and fiery determination — Jordan careens blindly past rules and easy answers. Lucky for her, boss Dr. Garret Macy (Miguel Ferrer) rarely blows his stack and cuts her slack due to her uncanny knack for ultimately arriving at the truth. Joined in the lab by Dr. Mahesh Bug Vijayaraghavensatyanaryanamurthy (Ravi Kapoor) and Dr. Nigel Townsend (Steve Valentine), who are as ingenious as they are eccentric — killers beware! Any corpse fortunate enough to cross Jordan’s table WILL get the final word.

Adding a calming effect to this otherwise Type-A crew is Lily Lebowski (Kathryn Hahn), a warm-hearted, tree-hugging intake counselor who exhibits a particularly mellowing influence on Dr. Macy. Jordan turns to her ex-cop father, Max Cavanaugh (Ken Howard), for crime-solving savvy as well as for answers to her mother’s mysterious slaying when she was only ten years old. Together, they engage in some rather unusual role-playing that literally puts them in the heads of the killers and victims at the murder scene.

production details
USA | NBC | 117×50 minutes | Broadcast 24 September 2001 – 16 May 2007

Creator and Executive Producer: Tim Kring

cast
Jill Hennessy as Jordan Cavanaugh
Miguel Ferrer as Garret Macy
Jerry O’Connell as Detective Woody Hoyt
Steve Valentine as Nigel Townsend
Ravi Kapoor as Mahesh “Bug” Vijay
Kathryn Hahn as Lily Lebowski
Ken Howard as Maximilian “Max” Cavanaugh
Mahershala Ali as
Lorraine Toussaint as
Paul Wesley as Quentin Baker